Proto-Euphratean language


Proto-Euphratean is a hypothetical unclassified language or languages which was considered by some Assyriologists, to be the substratum language of the people that introduced farming into Southern Iraq in the Early Ubaid period.
Dyakonov and Ardzinba identified these hypothetical languages with the Samarran culture.
Benno Landsberger and other Assyriologists argued that by examining the structure of Sumerian names of occupations, as well as toponyms and hydronyms, one can suggest that there was once an earlier group of people in the region who spoke an entirely different language, often referred to as Proto-Euphratean. Terms for "farmer", "smith", "carpenter", and "date", also do not appear to have a Sumerian or Semitic origin.
Igor Dyakonov and Vladislav Ardzinba proposed a different term, "banana languages", based on a characteristic feature of multiple personal names attested in Sumerian texts, namely reduplication of syllables : Inanna, Zababa, Chuwawa/Humbaba, Bunene etc. The same feature was attested in some other unclassified languages, including Minoan. The same feature is allegedly attested by several names of Hyksos rulers: although Hyksos tribes were Semitic, some of their names, like Bnon, Apophis, etc. were apparently non-Semitic by origin.
Rubio challenged the substratum hypothesis, arguing that there is evidence of borrowing from more than one language. This theory is now predominant in the field.
A related proposal by Gordon Whittaker is that the language of the proto-literary texts from the Late Uruk period is an early Indo-European language which he terms "Euphratic".

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